Steps

Steps are ways to split up work instructions in a Procedure. Each step can represent a specific job to be done or action to take.

All steps for a procedure are shown in a list on the left. The selected step's content is shown on the right.

Creating a Step

When editing a procedure, you can add a new step using the Add Step button or use the inline controls over existing steps to add a new step or new child steps. ION will prompt you for the new step's name and type of step.

Step creation interface

There are two main types of steps, Content and Datagrid.

Copying Steps

When adding a new step, type in the title of the step you want to copy. ION will automatically fetch all existing steps that match the step title and display them along with information about what procedure they will be copied from. Hit enter to select the highlighted step or select the one you want with the mouse

Step copy interface

You can also duplicate steps from the step list in a procedure using the duplicate tool by mousing over a step.

Child Steps

Steps may be nested under each other to form parent-child relationships. This is useful for when you want to group multiple actions together, like inspecting multiple parts of a complicated assembly. Create child steps by using the add child step tool when mousing over a step, or by dragging an existing step under another step.

Steps may only be nested one level deep

Steps show the number of child steps they have on badge next to the step title.

Step 2 has three child steps

Re-organizing Steps

Use the handles on the left side of step tiles to reorder steps.

Reorganize Steps and Child Steps

Numbering Steps

Steps are automatically numbered starting from 0 based on their order. Child steps are numbered based on their parent step using dot notation. For example, the first child step of step 1 would be 1.0, the next would be 1.1 and so on.

Step Locations

Each step can be tagged with a location under the "Select a workcenter" dropdown to indicate where it is to be done, like "Testing Lab" or "Paint booth 1 ".